Guild Wars 2

A lot of thieves i see in sPvP games nowadays will be running dagger pistol, d/d, but few choose to use the sword..

Sword skills
1. basic attack is insanely annoying due to cripple/weakness. Once the target is crippled, unless they have condition removal, they won’t be running too far, great for elementalists and rangers.. decent damage as well.

2. Shadowstep (winstep) costs 3 init at first, immobilizes the target (enough time for you to begin a cripple chain), while casting again costs 2 init and removes 1 condition; returns you to your starting location. I use this skill to harass melee classes, as i’m stepping back and forth at least 2 to 3 times each skirmish, removing a ton of conditions from condition dmg specs. Great for chasing and dodging, this skill.

3. this skill is the “Dodgestep” as i like to call it, good damage but costs 4 init. I’d rather use that on skill 4.

4. Skill 4, the dagger crippling/ninja star skill. Costs you 4 initiative, bounces in between targets and does decent dmg as well as cripples. Great for chasing and group fights, kind of breaks everyone’s ankles if they’re close together.

5. Cloak and Dagger. A Whopping 6 initiative to use, this skill is your last resort to GTFO the fight and save yourkitten

I run these weapons with a 12 initiative, trap/steal build, very powerful as my capabilities are endless with all the movement disables from traps and sword, as well as the bursting capabilities given to both myself AND my teammates of the stealing spec (i advise thieves to look into the steal specs for pvp!!)

I also use a shortbow for the lack of mobility from sword/dagger.

Obviously be running thieve’s guild and thieve’s trap.. they are amazing together.

The speed of the sword attacks make auto attacks harder to land as well as the skills of sword/dagger combination have no extreme burst damage. It is consistent but not high burst, and a death blossom build also allows for evasions during skills. Ur damage by using a dagger sword build is severely weaker compared to the dagger dagger specs. This build, however, does have the most amount of cc.

Definitely would be outbursted/dmg’d by a dagger thief, but often i feel like the thief profession has so many CC capabilities that it should be employing. My priorities in a 4+ man fight would be to tripwire and steal for buff granting and stealing, this along with 3-4 npc thieves give a huge support to my side of the team.

My downed teammates are usually thankful when I do clutch Dodge (for swiftness) —> Shadowstep —> Tripwire (opponent trying to finish teammate off falls on butt) —> Thieve’s trap (for blinding powder) —> Revive

That’s one problem, I feel the thief doesn’t have as many knockbacks as other classes, that’s why i love tripwire because it is one of the few skills that i can use as a thief that will drop an opponent.

I really enjoy using sword/dagger on my thief. Equipped with mesmer runes i can pretty much keep you daze locked. If you drop below 40% health switch to dagger/pistol and finish you off. And if you think your going to heal hit you with pistol skill 4 and another daze.